“With regard to drink I have decided to adopt a system based on the division of days with five categories – as follows.
A. No drink until dinner, then only one sort.
B. Either only one sort at luncheon or dinner or nothing until dinner then more sorts than one.
C. More sorts both at luncheon and dinner but nothing between.
D. No restrictions but no excess.
E. Excess.”
This is one of Duff Cooper’s New Year Resolutions in 1938. He records that April, same year, was not a good month: only seven A days and nine D days. I suppose the rest were B, C and E. His diaries are a delight although sometimes Groundhog Day as events covered by Tommy Lascelles, Alan Brooke, Jock Colville, Chips Channon and biographers and historians recur – always with a new slant.
Duff was an excellent ambassador in Paris. He spoke good French, had a popular wife and, shall we say, embraced enthusiastically the French delectation for fine food, wine and cinq à sept. He understood statecraft in an age when ambassadors had to shape foreign policy and in the aftermath of the war there was much to do. But now things that were so important then are just footnotes in history, “writ in water”. So it’s pleasing that Duff made a lasting mark at the embassy.
He converted his sitting room into an elegant library. He supplied the books and the Department of Public Works somewhat reluctantly paid for the construction costs. Of course this was at a time when Britain was not flush with public money, so quite an achievement by Duff. Should I ever be invited to the embassy I would much like to see it.
Shortly after he took up his appointment in 1944, Churchill came to Paris. Duff is in the centre to the right of Churchill’s shoulder.
